The 5th of Iyar - When The Sky Turned Black

“Our revolution is directed not only against a system but against destiny, against the unique destiny of a unique people.”
David Ben-Gurion

The 5th day of the Jewish month of Iyar is celebrated in “Israel” with streets festooned with flags, barbecues and of course the ubiquitous fireworks of all independence days around the globe. At some point the powers that be decided that nothing seems to better commemorate a bloody struggle for self-determination like multicolored starbursts in the night sky. The scene in most of “Israel” is festive. Besides the foreign language being spoken, it feels strangely similar to July 4th in Middle America. Just good ol’ fashioned family fun. Minus the apple pie.

In stark contrast is the atmosphere in many Orthodox neighborhoods. Meah Shearim, Beis Shemesh, etc. Fasting is not uncommon and there are those clothed in sackcloth and ashes as a sign of mourning. Several synagogues in these areas recite special prayers of mourning, marking the 5th of Iyar as an exceptionally tragic day. Why?

The first “Israeli” Independence Day was, and still is, the culmination of over a 100 years of rebellion realized. As its first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, so aptly said,

“But the makers of the contemporary Jewish revolution have asserted: Resisting fate is not enough. We must master our fate; we must take our destiny into our own hands! This is the doctrine of the Jewish revolution—not non-surrender to the Galut (Exile) but making an end of it.”

Ben-Gurion, in the same 1944 speech to Zionist Youth, continued,

“What makes this revolution so different is that it bears no relation to an existing order.”

Especially Judaism.

Riding on the coattails of its rabidly anticlerical and anti-religious predecessors, the Zionist establishment took a by then familiar refrain, exchanging a few key words for emphasis. “You can be the best Jew if you’re a nationalistic Jew. All traditional and time-tested forms of Jewish identity don’t matter, only your unbending loyalty to the soon to come state. We are the new and improved Jew! Join us and take part in the future of your people!”

Zionism is, in the words of historian Shlomo Avineri, revolution. However, revolution is relative. The United States has, as a result of its own history, almost unwittingly exported an image of revolution as advancement, an avenue for rectifying past wrongs and grievances. This view neglects the violent netherworld of so many revolutions. A French Revolution paired with a Great Terror. A Russian Revolution followed by a Great Purge. The Cultural Revolution of China leaving over 60 million dead. The Khmer Rouge of Cambodia murdering over a million in the countryside outside of Phnom Penh in a few short years.

Unsurprisingly, True Torah Jews places the so-called “Zionist Revolution” squarely amongst the above mentioned more violently inclined uprisings. Though Zionist delegation of murder was a tool used to achieve statehood after the Second World War, physical killing is not the only form of homicide. A people can be massacred culturally (ask the many indigenous peoples around the world), economically or spiritually. All three of these methods and more have been used by the Zionists in their undeclared war against the Jewish People, but the most striking is the spiritual element.

A remaking, better disfigurement, of Jewish identity. An identity which was, till a few hundred years ago, coached almost solely in religious terms. Avineri says,

“Until the late eighteenth century, if a Christian were asked what distinguished him from a Jew, he would have answered in terms of religious beliefs and so would a Jew if asked to define what distinguished him from the majority society. Identity for an individual and a group was perceived in religious terms, and the Jewish distinctiveness was viewed by Jews and non-Jews alike.”

Now this all changed. A “better Jew” had arrived. One who was, in his own eyes, smarter, more savvy and adroit than the spiritual giants and scholarly geniuses who preceded him. This new and improved Jew set about reworking history and Jewish consciousness like a toddler playing with clay.

The rich storehouses of Jewish history have been ransacked, treasures replaced by cheap roadside baubles. In Zionist lore, Duvid HaMelech (King David) has morphed from a scholar-king, a true servant of The Almighty, into a straight to DVD action hero, not even worthy of being seen in theaters. One of many victims.

Ben-Gurion and those who proceeded and followed him have gone at the form of Jewish selfhood, hacking away with a sculptor’s chisel with all the dexterity of a raccoon after a few cocktails. Those who have been unlucky or unwise enough to come under the Zionist scalpel would likely not be recognizable to their ancestors in Europe just a few generations earlier. A spiritual Frankenstein’s monster. This beast was bristling with nationalism was/is often so crippled that it can only stand on crutches made of stolen religiosity. Co-opting Judaic images and terminology for political gain is by now a 100 year old Zionist custom.

Zionism has tried to take the Jew and void him of that essential component which characterized him for thousands of years. A relationship with G-d. Nothing more. Nothing less. From Smolenskin to Herzl to Borochov to Jabotinsky, they all sought to perform a spiritual facelift on the soul of Jewry. And woe to those who came under their knife.

The somber mood in many neighborhoods in “Israel” during its Independence Day is due to this massive effort at warping the face of Jewry. And it’s given credibility, in the eyes of some, by the advent of the Zionist State. An official stamp of approval for the destruction of the soul of a people. A “kosher certification” on a bag of poison. And for that reason Torah Jews mourn.